Archive - Oct 2011

Just like with Lehman, when it took 3 days for the full consequences of the bankruptcy to manifest themselves in the form of a complete freeze of money markets, so too now we are starting to see the same phenomenon following the blow up of one of the world's largest exchanges. The first observation comes courtesy of Dow Jones which informs us that the MF Bankruptcy has "devastated stock futures liquidity." Specifically, "MF Global's departure from the clearing scene has "devastated liquidity" in stock index futures, a long-time CME floor broker said. He estimated about a third of the pit population is missing. On a normal day, six or seven filling brokers stand on the top rail. That's down to three. In the rate futures markets, another veteran broker sees "marginal" impact because MF's business in Eurodollar and Treasurys is not as large as Newedge USA and Goldman Sachs. "Whatever the effect, it will be extremely short- term in nature because accounts will find new clearing firms and executing brokers quickly," the rate futures broker said." One can only hope the futures broker is right. In the meantime, the CME's margin drop in Dow related margins from last week probably could not have come at a better time.

Reaching for yield (and prospectively capital appreciation) while shortening duration had become the new 'smart money' trade as we saw HY credit curves steepen earlier in the year (only to become the pain trade very quickly). The attraction of those incredible yields on short-dated sovereigns was an obvious place for momentum monkeys to chase and it seems that was the undoing of MF Global. The Dec 2012 Italian bonds (in which MF held 91% of its ITA exposure), as highlighted in today's Bloomberg Chart-of-the-day, appears to be the capital-sucking instrument of doom for the now-stricken MF. As if we need to remind readers, there is a reason why yields are high - there is no free lunch - and while some have already leaped to the defense of the bet-on-black Corzine risk management process with comments such as 'He was simply early and will be proved correct' should remember that only the central banks have bottomless non-mark-to-market pockets to withstand the vol. It also sets up a rather useful lesson for those pushing for EFSF leverage to buy risky sovereign debt - but given today's issue demand, perhaps that is moot.

It just goes from bad to worse for Europe, which had been hoping to issue €5 billion in 15 year bonds to finance part of the Irish bail out via the EFSF. Instead, once seeing the orderbook, or lack thereof, Europe ended up slashing the notional by 40% and the maturity by 33%, to a €3 billion issue due 10 years from now. And that is hardly the end of the concessions. As the FT reports, "The bond from the European Financial Stability Facility will only target €3bn, instead of €5bn, and will be in 10-year bonds rather than a 15-year maturity because of worries over demand. A 10-year bond is more likely to attract interest from Asian central banks than a longer maturity. Banks hired to manage the deal are Barclays Capital, Crédit Agricole and JPMorgan." Do you see what happens Larry, when China walks? But so we have this straight, Europe plans to fund a total of €1 trillion in EFSF passthrough securities.... yet it can't raise €5 billion? Just.... Priceless.

And now for some good old fashioned Bob Janjuah, albeit with proper grammar (damn you Nomura proper English sylesheet... damn you to hell): "No change. Deeply bearish with respect to global growth, and on a secular basis I am very strongly risk-off – my 2012 target for the low in the S&P500 remains 800/900, with the risk of an "undershoot? to the 700s. See my last note for details/targets. I would highlight only my view that the global policy making community, based their "actions? over the last month, are doing a wonderful job in meeting my 2012 "target?. Namely that, in 2012, the current set of developed markets (DM) policymakers will be exposed as "emperors with no clothes on?, and their policy choices over the last few years will be seen as the central problem, rather than as some mystical bazooka solution which can somehow reconcile the chasm between a lack of growth and productivity on the one hand, and the enormous debt and debt servicing costs and unsustainable entitlement culture costs that we face in the DM world on the other." And for the shorter-term: "The implication therefore is that in 2011, the October equity lows MAY NOT be the lows for the year. So based on what I can see now, and with a S&P500 1310 “stop loss” as mentioned above, I am now looking for another major risk-off phase between now and year end, with a December target for the S&P500 back down in the 1100s for sure, and possibly even the low 1000s." In other words, Bob as we love him best: nearing his all time bearish zenith... Or nadir, depends on one's perspective.

What's the LIBOR roll-over for year end?

10Y US Treasuries have now successfully eradicated all the post-summit losses and are well on their way to last week's low yields as the reality (that we unendingly slammed into people's heads) appears to be hitting managers minds. 2s10s30s has also retraced the entire post-summit shift and the EUR is also getting very close to unch (from pre-summit). This leaves only ES (and credit to a lesser degree) as the odd man out having retraced only 50% of the post-summit euphoria.

The first three CDS ban attempts have failed. So has the coordinated ISDA attempt to make sovereign CDS a product with absolutely no functionality. The fourth time will be the charm though. The EFSF guarantees it! On the other hand, think of the massive EPS profit that Italy will post this quarter as a result of today's CDS blow out courtesy of the DVA accounting gimmick. Surely Dick Bove will imminently upgrade it to Dodecatuple Turbo Buy.

And the winners are.... Moody's Ba2-; S&P: BBB-; Fitch: BB+;  Congratulations to Egan-Jones for once again being the only rating agency worth their money and calling this collapse in advance.

Full bankruptcy filing attached below, where we find that in addition to owing JPM and Deutsche Bank $1.2 billion and $1 billion respectively, as bond trustees, the 7th biggest unsecured creditor with $845,397, is... CNBC? Perhaps that explains the objective reporting the Comcast station has provided on the topic of MF over the past several weeks, considering the caliber and quality of guests invited to opine. It also should be a reminder to all advertising collections offices to never be more than 30 days late on collecting receivables. Of course, this is pure speculation on our behalf. We are confident CNBC will provide a far more rational explanation why it is owed nearly $1 million by MF Global, and just what is the nature of services rendered...

Three years after upgrading Lehman days ahead of its bankruptcy, here is Dick Bove on CNBC last week assuring anyone idiotic enough to listen to him that, you guessed is, MF Gloal is fine and a buyer will promptly materialize. How much longer will the Comcast financial comedy channel tolerate this individual?

Based on the MF Global Proxy statement filed in August 2011, there are rumors that the now defunct Primary Dealer will pay Jon Corzine a severance of $12.1 million. However, is that the full story?

Game Over. And in the meantime, we get the following report from a media source: "CME’s acting like the MF Global thing just happened.  They’re haphazardly locking traders out who clear with MF, blocking access to the floor of not just MF Global employees but people who clear through them.  As a result, nobody wants to leave the floor and nobody who still has access wants to trade just to get locked out."

Time to drag the recession talk back? After three months of the Chicago PMI (a key advance indicator for the ISM), bucking the trend of the other high frequency economic indicators and beating expectations consistently, it is the PMI itself that finally missed consensus, printing at 58.4 on expectations of 59.0, and down from a 60.4 in September. The strength in the report was in Employment, which was the highest in 6 months, while New Orders "erased half of Spetember's gains." Inventories dropped from 60.3 to 54.4, Production was down from 63.9 to 63.4, while inflation returns as Prices Paid rose from 62.3 to 66.0. Look for some cautious wording ahead of the Manfuacturing ISM now that everyone has hiked their Q4 GDP forecasts once again to accompany the S&P ramp, because the stock market is somehow representative of the economy.

Hidden among the detritus of last night's MF headlines and JPY Azumification, Moody's released their Weekly Credit Outlook. The report was rather unsurprisingly (given our perspective on the lack of real news last week) negative on the Euro Summit implications noting that while some positives remain, the negatives at a grossed-up level seem to outweigh the market's exuberance. In most scenarios they see the impact as neutral (for Ireland and Portugal, European banks and Insurers, and the EFSF itself) but they are most concerned at the impact the 'plan' will have on AAA-rated euro are countries and the considerably higher bank recap needs. We can only leave it to the market to decide how self-referencing CDS should be priced.